On the Meaning of Boule
As indicated by the attention devoted to it in a recent issue of AXESS, one of the more
fashionable concepts among social scientists these days is the term social capital, invented by
the American political scientist Robert Putnam to understand democracy in northern Italy.
Putnam has become famous for his claim that contemporary Americans “bowl alone” and
have thereby given up the shared common values, that is, social capital, that once made their
country great. Democracy is threatened, Putnam argues, if his fellow Americans do not start
to bowl together again.
Like many concepts that come from America and might have some basis in reality “over
there” Putnam’s ideas strike me as not being particularly relevant for Sweden. After all, here
in Sweden everything is so organized, and the kind of links between people that Putnam refers
to as social capital show no signs of weakening. Just look at the arrangements of the
upcoming America’s cup race here in Malmö, where sailing enthusiasts have shown
themselves to have quite a lot of social capital available to influence democratically elected
politicians. If you ask me, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if they “sailed alone” rather than use
our tax money to watch them sail together.
In Sweden a more useful metaphor than bowling alone might be playing boule together. As a
long time player, boule seems to me to be a good symbol for contemporary Sweden. Like so
many other new things that we take for granted like pizza and Thai noodles, it was brought
into the country by recent immigrants; in Åkarp where I live, it was a few Frenchmen who
introduced us to the game back in the 1980s. In some 25 years, it has grown into a popular
leisure activity that is played in just about every part of the country.
Over the years, boule has become truly Swedish; indeed, many of the Frenchmen who were
active at the beginning have drifted away. In France, the game is often played while enjoying
an aperitif, but in Sweden, such mixing of sport with drink is off limits. It is interesting that in
Denmark, boule has developed differently than it has in Sweden; there you can drink beer
when you play in tournaments, and they call the little ball that all the action revolves around
“gris” rather than “lillen,” as we do in Sweden.
But perhaps more than anything else, what makes playing boule together a true metaphor for
contemporary Swedish culture is how well organized it is. There are local clubs that spring up
all the time, as a sort of natural process of evolution. When one club gets too big, it splits
apart so that more people can play in the club competitions and more people can decide about
things.
As an immigrant academic, I often say that I have met people playing boule who I never
would have met any other way. I have also visited places in Sweden that I wouldn’t have had
any reason to visit otherwise – just to throw metal balls in the dirt. But most importantly I
have been able to have fun together with people who are very different from me. And I have
even been given responsibility to serve as the chairman of my local club, getting a chance to
exercise some power, which is hard for an immigrant to be able to do otherwise.
All of this experience makes me quite dubious about the metaphor of bowling alone and the
concept of social capital as being particularly meaningful for Sweden. Indeed my many years
of playing boule together makes me wonder if it is something far different from social capital
that characterizes democracy in Sweden. It’s hard to find a name for it, or to make a social
science concept out of it, but it does seem to be working. Why not call it organized fun?
That’s not a bad competence for a society to have.
Andrew Jamison